Suchergebnisse

Although the expansion of global production networks (GPNs) has been an important source of employment generation in many developing and transition countries, the qualitative aspects of this employment are less promising, often being characterized by high flexibility, uncertainty and precariousness. Drivers of these outcomes are industry dynamics and lead firm strategies such as fast fashion in the apparel industry. Equally important are, however, multi-scalar institutional contexts and state policies that influence social up- and downgrading trajectories. Against this background, the article assesses the up-/downgrading of apparel workers in Romania, a key regional supplier of western European markets. In addition to the sourcing practices of lead firms, and particularly fast fashion, we highlight the legacy of the country's state socialist past and its post-socialist transformation, Europeanization and the global economic crisis as drivers of GPN outcomes.

Regional suppliers still play an important role in the global apparel industry. By studying the experience of Romania's apparel sector, the paper highlights, first, the importance of multiscalar institutional, macro and policy contexts in analyzing the articulation of and up- and downgrading experiences in global production networks. These include the Multi-Fibre Arrangement, EU trade agreements and accession, the global economic crisis, and the specific institutional and policy context of post-Socialism. Second, the paper stresses the existence of diverse, non-linear and uneven up- and downgrading trajectories and of reactive adaptation rather than pro-active firm strategies. This questions the ideal upgrading account often portrayed in chain and network research.

The electronics manufacturing sector has played a prominent role in export-oriented development strategies, as participation in this high-tech industry promises access to new technology, high skilled jobs and a fast-growing market. Against this background, many governments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have sought to attract investment in this sector, where foreign firms became the key actors in reshaping after 1989 and where integrating into global production networks (GPNs) was widely embraced as a means to modernize and upgrade local industries. We assess to what extent the potential benefits arising from integrating into electronics GPNs have materialized in Hungary, an established player and the most important electronics exporting country in the region, and Romania, a newcomer country in electronics manufacturing. To analyse these questions, we look at the organizational and geographical configuration of the electronics sector and examine the impact integration into these networks has had on local firms and workers and to what extent this integration has led to economic and social upgrading. With regard to economic upgrading processes, we suggest that the upgrading concept needs to pay more attention to the 'reach' of economic upgrading. This is particularly important when integration into GPNs takes place via foreign direct investment (FDI), where economic upgrading processes may be focused on transnational corporations (TNCs) with limited spillovers to local firms. The social upgrading trajectory is influenced importantly by global industry dynamics, for example high flexibility pressures and the tiered nature of the workforce in electronics GPNs, and countries' specific institutional and regulatory contexts.

Basierend auf Nancy Frasers Konzept der Kämpfe um Grenzziehungen (boundary struggles) untersucht der Artikel die historisch umkämpften und im Wandel befindlichen Versorgungsleistungen der Ökonomie des Alltagslebens. Dabei diskutieren wir am Beispiel Wien vergangene und gegenwärtige gesellschaftliche Auseinandersetzungen darüber, wer welche Alltagsgüter und -leistungen für wen bereitstellt und schließen mit einem Ausblick auf eine zukunftsfähige Ökonomie des Alltagslebens im 21. Jahrhundert.

This paper shows the importance of ownership, end markets and regionalism within the global value chain and related conceptual frameworks. This is done through unpacking the development trajectories of the major Sub Saharan African apparel export industries against the backdrop of trade regime changes. Ownership characteristics of supplier firms shape the ability to shift between different end markets and respond to lead firm requirements; and the level of their local and regional embeddedness impacts on different forms of upgrading. The emergence of new regionalism centred around investment and end markets provides pathways for new trajectories of more sustainable value chains and local industrialization. More locally and regionally embedded firms have been able to shift with uneven success to new, and in particular regional, markets. In contrast, Asian-owned transnational producers remain focused on the US market with limited market opportunities and upgrading potential. Different types of ownership and embeddedness dynamics are therefore important to explain the co-evolution of highly differentiated value chain dynamics creating a variety of apparel industrialization trajectories in the apparel export industry in Sub Saharan African.